Mine has a "/" key. It's in both the onscreen keyboard and thumboard.

In my opinion the lower case set should be web-centric. That means the colon and other typical characters need to be there. Language switching IMO should be part of the menu, not the key set.

Is pressing and holding the upper case key (Up Arrow) to switch to permanent upper-case (Caps Lock) and lower-case so difficult to get used to, I am missing something... i.e. what exactly have we lost?

In the case of virtual keyboards on N800 and N810 the soft keyboard clearly indicates a new use for the old (Caps Lock) Key and clearly indicates temp/permanent upper-case on the (Up Arrow) Key.

Oh well as has already been said very difficult to please everyone. I believe they had similar problems when they went from black and white to colour televisions

we should get tha ability to choose what type of keybord we want when we startup the Tablet for the first time (like the time/date and "what phone to connect" menu)
no?

I'm not saying anything was "lost". I do believe the current mode is more confusing and less obvious, but that can be overcome.

Part of my complaint with the caps key is in the vein of expected functionality. Users expect configuration to be a menu item, not a keyboard press. Configuration is not typically a commonly accessed item, either, at least for the majority. Therefore it makes more sense IMO to use the keyboard for common key functions and leave configurations to the menu. However, that doesn't mean I necessarily think the new mysterious (clearly indicated??? where???) "En" button needs to go back to being a CAPS lock-- again, people can get used to that sort of change. Rather, perhaps it could be used for one of the web-centric keys that, again IMO, should be more readily accessible while in lower case mode.

Which leads to the gripe you quoted. Lower case constitutes the norm in internet and email addresses. Just as the @ character was made standard on the lowercase keyset (in contrast to QWERTY convention), so should other characters consistently used in such cases... such as the colon.

You are correct that no implentation will please everyone, but it is just good UI practice to design for the norm. In 20+ years of design and programming that has always been my approach (no, that is not meant as an appeal to authority ).

Finally, while I'm sure you were being facetious with your TV analogy, I can't possibly equate the two...

Agreed. Same for Locale IMO. But so far I've been shot down when suggesting such things...

EDIT: related bug at maemo--

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2663

LOL! That's why I love these forums, people are so passionate!

Actually I meant by tablet program folks.

When I stated that "en" is clearly indicated I personally was referring to the on screen stylus keyboard. (Which has been the main way for me to enter text on the move with my Nokia 770 and then N800)

With the latest OS2008 I am able to set a 1st & 2nd language choice and the beauty of the en key is that I can seamlessly switch language mid sentence "en English to es Spanish" for example and the predictive spell check changes at the same time. (now having an indication on the stylus keyboard of the language & spell setting seems of overall benefit in my eyes)

Not only that but the predictive speller will always offer similar words in 1st and second languages. (When set up via relevant control panel option)

Where else is the "caps key vs en" present as for example it's not on the physical keyboard of the new N810?

With regard to the web centric keys, I quick switch of shift or hold shift for Shiftlock = Caps lock seems to provide all we need which is why I stated what is actually missing. (On any of the three input methods, with the N810)

Now onto which particular webcentric key should replace the Caps lock or Language hmmm, which gets most typical daily use hmmm when you stop to think about it actually quite a few of them

Perhaps another option would to actually have additional function keys on stylus keyboard which can be preset by the user and then have an personal indication on the key based on user preference. Just some thoughts....

I don't understand the question.

As to my comments vis-a-vis webcentric character choices, I continue to believe that the default should be all standard web and email address characters available with the lower case set. For reasoning I use the same logic you do around the "En" key: convenience.

Texrat, I was attempting to provide considered reasoning around why Nokia may have decided to discard the caps lock (Adding a uppercase lock facility to the upper case key in its place)

I believe the Caps key was only ever provided with the stylus Keyboard, but of course I could be wrong.

I am not aware of other threads on the subject of a quick switch of the keyboard language and potential benefits so thought this information worth including for the user community and as an aid to a balanced discussion.